Humanly space objects—Perception and connection with the observer

Abstract

a b s t r a c tExpanding humanity into space is an inevitable step in our quest to explore our world. Yet space exploration is costly, and the awaiting environment challenges us with extreme cold, heat, vacuum and radiation, unlike anything encountered on Earth. Thus, the few pioneers who experience it needed to be well protected throughout their spaceflight. The resulting isolation heightens the senses and increases the desire to make humanly connections with any other perceived manifestation of life. Such connections may occur via sensory inputs, namely vision, touch, sound, smell, and taste. This then follows the process of sensing, interpreting, and recognizing familiar patterns, or learning from new experiences. The desire to connect could even transfer to observed objects, if their movements and characteristics trigger the appropriate desires from the observer. When ordered in a familiar way, for example visual stimuli from lights and movements of an object, it may create a perceived real bond with an observer, and evoke the feeling of surprise when the expected behavior changes to something no longer predictable or recognizable. These behavior patterns can be designed into an object and performed autonomously in front of an observer, in our case an astronaut. The experience may introduce multiple responses, including communication, connection, empathy, order, and disorder. While emotions are clearly evoked in the observer and may seem one sided, in effect the object itself provides a decoupled bond, connectivity and communication between the observer and the artist-designer of the object. In this paper we will discuss examples from the field of arts and other domains, including robotics, where human perception through object interaction was explored, and investigate the starting point for new innovative design concepts and future prototype designs, that extend these experiences beyond the boundaries of Earth, while taking advantage of remoteness and the zero gravity environment. Through a form of emotional connection and design, these concepts will focus on the connection and brief emotional bond between a humanly animate object in space and a co-located observer in spaceflight. We conclude that beyond providing creative expressions for humanly contacts, these experiences may also provide further insights into human perception in spaceflight, and could be tested on the International Space Station, and serve as a stepping-stone towards use on long-duration spaceflight to Mars.

Ocular fixations modulate audiovisual semantic congruency when standing in an upright position

“…The findings of the present study have practical implications concerning semantic congruency, an effect that has been stated as a critical factor in multisensory behavioural performance (Laurienti et al, 2004). Unusual body positions have become relevant to the understanding of perception (Balint & Hall, 2015). Therefore, the fact that the direction of idiotropic axes can diminish perceptual performance has been considered as an important issue within the scope of perception for action (Oman, 2003).…”

“…The inversion of idiotropic axes can affect the perception of visual stimuli. It occurs due to the assimilation and accommodation processes that, in turn, entail the incorporation of information alluding to atypical body positions (Balint & Hall, 2015). In addition, compensatory eye movements that emerge as a result of the processing of vestibular information are performed as a reflex act to stabilize the image (Angelaki et al, 2009).…”

“…As the idiotropic head axis is inverted, the eyes' vertical meridians are rotated with regard to the gravity vector, which implies an effect on visual perception (Gaunet & Berthoz, 2000). Given that unusual body positions imply an effect on the way of interacting with the perceived environment (Balint & Hall, 2015), a research question was raised of whether body position exerts an influence on audiovisual semantic congruency, taking into account ocular fixations made on bottom-up modulating visual areas.…”

Pillow talk—Curating delight for astronauts

“…The second is a similar but subsequent cycle, between the user and the artifact, as discussed in Refs. [4,5,13].…”

Análisis de reversibilidades perceptuales y de tiempos de respuesta en el marco de la decodificación de una imagen biestable

“…In addition, there is a reflex action that emerges so as to both stabilize the image and favor the perceptual process to be more efficient (Angelaki, Klier, & Snyder, 2009). Interactions between objects and observers are achieved through complementary processes of assimilation and accommodation (Balint & Hall, 2015). As far as assimilation is concerned, interaction with the object is approached through previous experiences.…”